Chinese immigrants have spread their cuisine to all corners of the globe, from Venice to Fiji. An appreciation for Chinese food seems to span all cultures, and despite the significance of pork in the Chinese diet, there are even kosher Chinese restaurants. So why not Muslim Chinese?

The Fatima restaurants in San Mateo and San Jose serve Northern Chinese food that complies with Islamic regulations. Chef and owner Richard Hsu, 48, is from Taiwan. His wife, Fatima, 49, was raised Christian and converted to Islam in her mid-20s, after living among the large Muslim populations in Southeast Asia for most of her life. She named herself after the daughter of the prophet Muhammad.

Raised as a Buddhist, Hsu converted to Islam 10 years ago when they opened the first Fatima at the Cupertino-San Jose border. The San Mateo branch has been operating five years.

As a restaurateur, Hsu considers the most important practices of Islam to be the prohibitions on pork, alcohol and non-halal meat. "My employees aren't allowed to bring pork to the workplace, even though they aren't Muslim," said Hsu.

He serves customers of all faiths. Jewish patrons like to eat at Fatima because pork is not served and the standards of the halal beef and lamb are on par with that of kosher guidelines. Given the shared heritage of Judaism and Islam, it is not surprising that in both religions, healthy animals have their throats quickly and cleanly slit to produce the least amount of pain, followed by a complete draining of the blood from the carcass.

The main difference is that kosher butchers, if they say a blessing, may say one blessing for all the animals for the day, while halal butchers bless each animal individually in the name of Allah.

Hsu said that some Muslim sects will eat only those fish with scales, while others will eat all kinds of seafood. At Fatima, they serve shellfish and finned fish with scales, eschewing catfish.

Sheakh Sahib, a member of the Al Haq mosque in San Mateo, expressed skepticism about Fatima because there is no halal certificate posted.

Hsu explained that he used to buy from local halal butchers, but was not satisfied with the quality, and he refuses to compromise on quality even if doing so would support small, local Muslim businesses. He now buys halal chicken from Townsends in North Carolina and halal beef and lamb from T & R Pastoral in South Australia.

Hsu did not believe that the conglomerates would bother sending him halal certification, being that his orders are so small, but he is trying to procure certificates. In the meantime, he is issuing an open invitation to show customers the boxes where his meat comes from.

In any case, "Customers like the food, that's the first thing -- not thinking about religion," said Hsu. "We're not trying to convert anyone. Our first priority is the food."

Fatima was originally a Southern California-based franchise called Ma's. Hsu said that Ma is a common Muslim Chinese last name. According to Hsu, a non- compete agreement not to open another Ma's within 200 miles spawned a Ma's in San Jose, New Ma's in Mountain View and Darda in Milpitas.

These restaurants all began as Muslim, but have now diverged to the point where the restaurant might even serve alcohol. "There are Muslims who own liquor stores, but we can't criticize them for that," Hsu said. "Everyone needs to make a living."

He has continued to uphold the prohibition on alcohol and non-halal meat, but changed the recipes while keeping most of the original menu.

Hsu was a computer technician in Taiwan and Silicon Valley. By 1984, he had been laid off several times and decided to go into the restaurant industry. His grandfather had owned a Chinese restaurant in Shanghai. Hsu spent a decade working both the front and back of the house in restaurants before opening his own. Fatima was a waitress and worked as the kitchen controller at Ma's in San Jose for a couple of years.

About 30 percent of Hsu's clientele is Muslim, 60 percent Chinese and 10 percent Caucasian, Hsu said. He does not know how many are Chinese Muslims, but suspects that there are very few.

Most of China's Muslims are descended from Central Asian lineages of Islamic ancestry by way of the Silk Road. Concentrated in Northwest China, they spread to other parts of Northern China.

Wheat, rather than rice, is dominant in Northern China, so breads, noodles and dumplings are the mainstays of the diet. Fatima's signature dishes are the sesame bread and chewy noodles cut by hand. Customers regularly take the sesame bread to Taiwan, Seattle and Canada.

The scallion pancakes at Fatima are thin and soft -- more like mu shu wrappers than the usual crispy fried disks. One customer buys 20 pancakes every month and spends more on shipping costs to send them to her son in New York.

Perhaps because the majority of his Muslim customers are not Chinese, they prefer chow mein over the knife-cut noodles. Hsu has noticed that they like spicy dishes such as chicken with chili sauce, spicy Hunan beef and eggplant with spicy sauce. In addition, "They cook lamb at home, so they prefer beef and chicken when they go out," he said.

The Chinese diners like to order the knife-cut noodles, sesame bread and lamb dishes, such as lamb stir-fried with leeks. In addition, they savor the Northern Chinese hot pots, especially the ox tail and fish head stews.